‘All Night Long’

I heard this Rainbow song, “All Night Long,” yesterday afternoon. I can’t even tell you how long it’s been since I’ve heard that sleazy paean to “band aides.”

“All Night Long” is great in its unapologetic portrayal of the girls who love the bands: “Your mind is dirty but your hands are clean / You’re short on class but your legs are long.” How awesome are those lyrics? And they’re certainly not the typical Ritchie Blackmore fare.

This was actually my introduction to Rainbow, coming by way of the first Monsters of Rock album, recorded at Castle Donnington in 1980. Dio sang that version, though, whereas Graham Bonnet handled original vocal duties. It was only after I heard this song that I became more interested in Rainbow and Ritchie Blackmore. Actually, I take that back. Castle Donnington was my introduction to Rainbow, but it was a video clip of the performance that I had seen on TV that made me seek them out and, ultimately, led me to the Castle Donnington album and “All Night Long.”

Still with me? Good.

I was looking for a little information about this song and came up with the following: “All Night Long” – surprisingly – came in for some criticism from feminists. However, in a 1980 Sounds magazine article, Roger Glover was quoted to the effect that the song was “supposed to be funny.”

I also found an interesting Website called Groupie Dirt, which I’ll let you explore on your own.

All Night Long.mp3

Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes

posted by aikin @ 7:57 PM